By contrast, the latest RICS Rural Land Market Survey (H2 2011) shows that average farm land prices have risen by 11% over the last year – driven by higher commodity prices and a willingness of some banks to lend to the sector. There has been particularly demand for heavier Grade 3 arable land which has not been affected by drought – making it more expensive, particular with the prospects for a dry 2012.

Speaking about the figures, Adina Holmes, agricultural expert at A D Holmes & Co said:

It is not surprising when there are issues of food security and predictions of a dry year that land prices have seen growth over the past months. The flip side for the economy is the weaker residential property sector and that does highlight that different parts of the country are experiencing very different effects from the current economic turmoil.

With some analysts suggesting that interest rates will continue to be low for some time to come, it is likely that different sectors will continue to have diverse challenges in the coming months.

The historically low levels of interest rates are good news for those with debt and interest tracking mortgages but not so good news for people with savings – and some analysts believe it could go on for some time yet.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight is quoted by the BBC as saying “A fourth year of interest rates at 0.5% looks highly probably and a fifth years is far from impossible”.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee’s upcoming meeting dates are as follows:

Sad news for us, but great news for Rosie the chocolate labrador, Sarah has left us to work closer to home, which means Rosie gets her mum home earlier every day!

What does this mean for you if Sarah was your first point of contact? Well that contact is now me, ably assisted by the rest of our team -being Becky, Paula, James and Justyna – and we all look forward to hearing from you.

Signing off for now until my next update,

Adina

From Wednesday 3 August, we will open until 8pm every Wednesday evening.

Speaking about the changes, Adina Holmes said:

For too long, the professions have operated a ‘you can see us when it’s convenient for us’ mentality. Obviously, people who are running businesses or working office hours find it difficult to see their accountant and we recognise that they may well not want to eat into valuable weekend family time.

Having spoken to a lot of people about this, we have decided to extend our office opening hours until 8pm every Wednesday, initially until the end of January 2011.

Our new opening hours will be as follows:

You can drop in at any time but, to ensure that your accountant is available, please make an appointment by calling 01392 879173 or contacting us via this link.

The Open photograph is a derivative work made from an original released under a Creative Commons Licence by Sean McMenemy http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanfx/ (Thank you Sean!)

HMRC have said that “people who only sell a few items and are not traders are unlikely to be liable to tax and will not be targeted by this campaign”.

A D Holmes & Co advises a number of traders using sites including eBay and Amazon as well as e-book publishers. Our specialist, in depth knowledge allows clients to make the most of their trading allowances and expenses so as to pay the minimum amount of tax.

Speaking about the HMRC’s announcement, A D Holmes & Co’s online tax expert, Adina Holmes said:

“HMRC has been threatening to do something about internet traders for some time but it is difficult to see how they will differentiate between genuine personal sales and traders. It’s inevitable that some innocent people will get caught up in this and they should take professional advice if they get a tap on the shoulder from the Revenue.

“Anybody who trades online does need to consider their tax position and taking advice from an accountant can make sure that your tax bill is limited. I have found, in the past, new clients coming to me who trade online who are failing to set off all their allowable expenses against their profits simply because they did not know what could be claimed. With the right advice, nobody trading online needs to pay more tax than necessary.”

The figures, based on property values in England and Wales, showed the average home down 2.3% over the past year at £160,995. he biggest falls were seen in the North East where prices are down 9.3% annually, followed by Wales with a 7.2% reduction and Yorkshire and Humber (-5.3%).

Figures from the BBC website for the South West region show a rosier picture. Average house prices in the region are £227,341 – recording an average increase of 5.9% but with a quarterly decrease of 3.8%.

In other news, figures released by the Bank of England showed a slight increase in the number of mortgages approved for those buying a new home, rising to 47,557 in March, the highest level since November 2010.

The previous change in Bank Rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5 March 2009. A programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves was initiated on 5 March 2009. The most recent change in the size of that programme was an increase of £25 billion to a total of £200 billion on 5 November 2009.

Tweet

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has welcomed the news but has conceded that “we are not out of the woods yet”.

We will have further details including regional figures shortly. When we do, we will post an update on our Twitter feed @adholmesco

Our YouTube channel will also be up to date on this and other UK Economy news. You can view the videos and subscribe by clicking here.

Figures released by Devon County Council show that the claimant count fell from 10,159 in February to 9,988 in March, representing a 2% decrease month on month. The rate of the working age population who are in receipt of this out of work benefit remains the same at 2.2%.

This follows the trend seen nationally, although rates in Devon are falling faster. In comparison with neighbouring counties, the rate of JSA claimants in Devon is lower and has also remained lower the national average for the last twelve months.

Commenting on the news, Adina Holmes said

This is excellent news for the county. Devon has an economy that is particularly seasonal due in part to the tourism industry and so to see Devon’s unemployment figure falling faster than other regions so early in the year is really encouraging.

Devon has so much to offer and hopefully this year will be a bumper year for tourists visiting the area.

Devon County Council’s April 2011 Employment Brief can be downloaded here (in pdf format).